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By N L. Turner, D J. Robinson, A J. McFarlane, N M. Chapman, L L. Kuhar, R L. Meakin, R Martin

A number of geometallurgical tests have been developed within the AMIRA P843A Geometallurgical Mapping and Mine Modelling (GeMIII) project, an interdisciplinary collaborative research project involving four research groups and over 20 global mineral companies. Researchers at the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) have been focusing on the development of predictive hydrometallurgical indices for the GeMIII project via rapid, small-scale, cost-effective tests and protocols for comparative ranking of attributes relevant to leach performance. One of the focus areas has been the development of a leaching scheme for determination of the mineralogical deportment of copper in a large number of samples for geometallurgical applications.Various leaching schemes have been used over the last 20 years to identify the mineralogical deportment of copper. Typically, weak sulfuric acid and cyanide are used to target copper oxides and æsecondaryÆ copper sulfide minerals, covellite, chalcocite and bornite, respectively. Residual copper is assigned to chalcopyrite and/or bornite. Adaptations of this scheme have included the use of a weak organic acid to target oxides or ferric sulfate to target secondary copper sulfides. Testing of the weak acid/cyanide scheme in the GeMIII project using head and residue QEMSCAN mineralogical data analysed with a statistically reliable comparison method indicated that the inferred mineralogical deportment from various leaches could differ markedly from the theoretical or assumed value. Based on this initial work, test development and leach tests on samples from multiple sites has resulted in the development of a scheme to target copper oxides, chalcocite, covellite, bornite and chalcopyrite. This paper presents results from leach tests conducted on a large sample suite from two pits in a Cu-Au ore deposit with results calibrated using mineral liberation analyser (MLA) mineralogical analysis. This study has assisted in the development of a protocol for determining the mineralogical deportment of copper in a large number of samples for geometallurgical applications.CITATION:Kuhar, L L, McFarlane, A J, Chapman, N M, Meakin, R L, Martin, R, Turner, N L and Robinson, D J, 2013. Calibration and testing of a geometallurgical leaching protocol for determining copper mineralogical deportment, in Proceedings The Second AusIMM International Geometallurgy Conference (GeoMet) 2013 , pp 177-186 (The Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy: Melbourne).

Sep 29, 2013

By G Byrne

Long-term water management is typically ignored in mine closure planning. A review of 73 mine closure plans dating from 2007 to 2013 shows that, on average, relinquishment is proposed to be achieved in 11 years. A separate review of 57 mines in actual closure shows that only five have so far achieved relinquishment with an average closure period of 14 years after production cessation. The remaining 91 per cent of sites in closure have an average closure duration to date of 21 years - and still going.A common issue among those sites in closure is water management, with a further common issue being acid and metaliferous drainage (AMD). Of the closure plans that were reviewed only one site had allowance for long-term (>50 years) of water treatment. Of the sites in actual closure 25 per cent have reported that they expect such long-term water treatment, with many acknowledging that in perpetuity treatment is probable.Clearly there is a gap between what is being allowed in closure plans and the reality of closure. There are a number of factors leading to the optimism of the closure plans, including unrealistic assumptions, pressures to reduce closure cost provisions and the technical complexity of many AMD issues.Long-term water management is a reality that needs to be acknowledged and addressed. If addressed early in the mine life cycle the impacts for mining companies can be reduced.CITATION:Byrne, G, 2013. Long-term water management - the forgotten legacy of mine closure, in Proceedings Water in Mining 2013 , pp 163-168 (The Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy: Melbourne).

Nov 26, 2013

By Thomas J. Albin

This U.S. Bureau of Mines report identifies potential causes of slip-and-fall accidents occurring during surface mine equipment maintenance and describes the relative roles of direct worker behavior and machine design. The relative roles of human behavior and machine design in the causation of slip-and-fall accidents were determined through analysis of accident records, observations of maintenance worker behavior, and evaluation of mine machinery. From these data, relative risk ratios were calculated. Behavior had a relative risk ratio of 1.5; machine design, specifically access systems design, had a relative risk ratio of 2.2. Of the access systems, ladders had the highest relative risk ratio, 7.0. This study suggests that accident intervention would be most profitably made in improving the design of systems used to access maintenance worker areas of mining equipment.

Jan 1, 1990

By Frank G. Schwartz

VARIABLES OF composition and environment affecting storage stability of gasoline-type fuels were studied, utilizing radioactive tracers and other analytical techniques. Changes in gasoline composition brought about by aging were determined and correlated with gum formation. The amounts of reaction of selected gasoline components, measured by radioactive tracers, were determined in a gasoline-type blend and in a mixture of 17 selected pure gasoline components. The data show that sulfur compounds, nitrogen compounds, polycyclics, and olefins enter into gum-forming reactions. Certain sulfur and nitrogen compounds were found to be most reactive in the gum-forming process. Results of this study indicate that the aromatic constituents of gasolines may contribute substantially and directly to gum formation. A mixture of tetralin and indan-type compounds is reactive, and this mixture appears to be the main aromatic portion entering into gum formation. A secondary but significant amount of naphthalenes also appears to have reacted in the gum-forming process. Analyses of the sulfm compounds in a fresh and an aged fuel indicated that elemental sulfur, hydrogen sulfide, thiols, sulfides, and disulfides were depleted during aging, but thiophenes and residual sulfur compounds were not depleted by fuel deterioration.

Jan 1, 1964

By R. G. O'MEARA, Alexander M. Gow, W. T. SCHRENK

Lime is used extensively in the various industries. The National Lime Association in an excellent and recent bulletin lists 23 important in- dustries in which lime plays a vital role; and it thereby justifies the statement that "Lime is one of the most versatile and widely used reagents in the chemical and industrial world." There is, however, one application of this "universal" reagent which has not been mentioned. It is the use of lime in the flotation of ores. An appreciable percentage of the lime produc- tion is consumed by ore-dressing plants. The uses of lime throughout all the industries are more or less re- lated, but "lime" is a broad term; the varieties of lime are more mumerous than the limestones from which it is made, and its use involves a complicated technique. The interrelated application and growing importance of lime in flotation warrant this additional publication on the various "limes," with emphasis on those uses related to the function of lime in flotation. ཁྐྲ་ Lime in water treatment, cyaniding, and amalgamating will be men- tioned, after which its use in flotation will be taken up. This compendium was prepared by the Mississippi Valley Experiment Station of the United States Bureau of Mines and the Missouri School of Mines and Metallurgy, Rolla, Mo.

Apr 1, 1931

By Ross. C. Barkley

A computer program has been written to simulate ground vibrations induced by multiple-hole surface blasts. The program is an inexpensive and relatively easy to use tool for predicting the principal blast vibration characteristics that determine damage and annoyance potential: peak particle velocity, frequency content and pulse duration. The program generates a complete ground motion history by superposing, at any surface position, the vibrations induced by each individual explosives charge. It requires specification of (hence allows accounting for) the blast geometry, initiation sequence (including random delays), position with respect to blast, pulse characteristics induced by each charge, and propagation laws. A methodology is outlined to determine the necessary variables either on the basis of site investigations (e.g. velocity, attenuation, pulse), or by backcalculation from measured blast vibration records. The latter procedure has been applied to blasts from two coal strip mines. Main difficulties are backcalculating individual pulses, propagation (especially dispersion) parameters and delays. A normal distribution of delays, based on published results, has been shown to influence the results and the response of a single degree of freedom structure significantly. Broadening of the wave types included and additional verifications with field results are required.

Jan 1, 1983

By F. Alsobrook

Coleman Quartz Inc. has a long history as the sole U.S. producer of lascas for the cultured quartz growing industry based on its unique deposits in Arkansas. Since 1989 the company has also been producing metallurgical grade silica for the ferrosilicon industry from a deposit of unusually pure Arkansas novaculite. This paper chronicles Coleman's trans-formation of an abandoned railroad ballast quarry into a generator of $1.5 million in annual sales to a nontraditional novaculite market. Potential additional applications for this high quality silica rock will also be mentioned.

Jan 1, 1992

By R. L. Godfrey

The Custom Coals advanced coal cleaning plant will be designed with a unique blending of existing and new processes to produce two types of compliance coals: Carefree Coal? and Self-Scrubbing Coal?. Carefree Coal will be produced by cleaning the coal in a proprietary dense media cyclone circuit utilizing fine magnetite to remove up to 90 percent of the pyritic sulfur and correspondingly greatly reduce the ash. While may utilities can achieve full S02 reduction compliance with Carefree Coal, others face higher sulfur reduction requirements due to the higher sulfur content of their existing fuel supplies. For these circumstances, a patented Self-Scrubbing Coal will be produced by taking Carefree Coal and pelletizing limestone-based additives with the finest fraction of the clean coal. These technologies will enable over 150 billion tons of non-compliance U.S. coal reserves to meet compliance requirements.

Jan 1, 1995

By B. W. Hester

Report of discussion at January, 1971, general meeting (Chairman: M. J. Cahalan, President) of the paper published in Transactions/Section B (Applied Earth Science), vol. 79, May, 1970, pp. B60-B67, and contributed remarks. Comments were made by Taylor J.T.M., James C.H., Lethbridge R.F. and Heath K.C.G.

Dec 1, 1971

By Paul M. Tyler

This paper is one of a series of digests of foreign mining legislation and court decisions prepared in advance of a general report relative to the right of American citizens to explore for minerals and to own and operate mines in various foreign countries. This interpretation of the laws of Yugoslavia was prepared from information furnished by John Dyneley Prince, American Minis- ter at Belgrade, in response to a questionnaire submitted by the Bureau of Kinos and transmitted through the courtesy of the Department of State.

Oct 1, 1929

Arsenic.--Inorganic arsenic has been added to the Environmental Protection Agency's list of hazardous air pollutants because of a high probability it can cause cancer. EPA estimates that inorganic arsenic emissions into ambient air total more than 6,000 tons per year, with about 65;L of this coming from the operations of copper, lead, and zinc smelters. Asbestos Detection.--In June 14, the President signed S. 1658 providing $172.5 million to detect and remove asbestos hazards in schools. Asbestos Use Must be Reported.--All firms using asbestos in the manufacture of some 30 categories of products must describe in detail how they use the mineral to the Consumer Product Safety Commission, for all manufactures since January 1, 1977.

Jan 1, 1980

By S. Klein, M. McLeod, S. Gambino, K. Johnson, E. O’Hara

The Mokelumne Aqueducts Resiliency Project (MARP) involves construction of a 16.5-mile tunnel across the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta (Delta) to replace the existing surface aqueduct pipelines with more resilient conveyance. The tunnel will be bored in Pleistocene-age alluvium at elevations between 100 to 10 feet below mean sea level. At this depth ground conditions are signicantly stiffer and denser than surcial soils and will mitigate potential seismic harards related to liquefaction ground shaking and cooding that could arise from potentially damaged levees. The heterogeneous soil deposits at tunnel depth consist of interbedded layers of stiff to very stiff clay and silt, and dense to very dense clean sand and silty sand.

Jun 23, 2024

By Charles Vaught

The purpose of this study was to determine mine workers' state of fie-fighting preparedness and the technology being used to detect and respond to underground coal mine fires. To investigate this problem, 214 underground coal miners were interviewed by U.S. Bureau of Mines researchers. Frequency distributions of workers' responses are presented in this report, along with segments of narrative accounts, to profile miners' fire-fighting capabilities. The data indicated that much variability exists from mine to mine and that there are several important changes operators may undertake in order to make miners better prepared to deal with fire underground: select appropriate sensors, establish and test a warning and communication protocol, construct a system capable of delivering hundreds of gallons of water per minute for sustained periods, institute formal fire preparedness audits, develop case studies of events that occur at an operation to use as teaching and assessment tools, and provide structured practice that can be incorporated into fire drills.

Jan 1, 2010

By A. Deneys

This paper reviews industrial gases used in primary copper production. Copper smelting industrial gas demand has steadily increased since the first commercial oxygenconcentrate smelting in 1952 [1]. In copper production oxygen for smelting is the dominant industrial gas use followed by oxygen for converting. Nitrogen is finding increased use in copper smelters. Nitrogen is used for porous plugs for copper converting and anode refining [2-5]. Nitrogen can be used for concentrate drying [6,7] and is also used in some Ni-Cu smelters as a coolant in Peirce-Smith converting [8,9]. Industrial gas supply options of cryogenic or adsorbent based on-site plant or cryogenic liquid delivery are detailed.

Jan 1, 2007

By James Westfield

A brief résumé follows of some of the most recent activities of the Division of Coal-Mine Inspection that have had a favorable effect. on health, safety, and injuries at coal mines: 1. There were approximately 8,510 active coal mines in the United States during 1955. In all, 82,389 regular Federal inspections of coal mines have been made since Public Law 49 became effective in May 1941; 9,823 of these inspections were made during 1955. 2. The Bureau of Mines introduced the revised Coal-Mine Accident-Prevention Course for Supervisors in the coal-mining industry on March 1, 1948. Since that date, 19,455 supervisors and those aspiring to official positions have completed such training conducted by personnel of the Division of Coal-Mine Inspection.

Jan 1, 1956

By B J. Monaghan, P Zulli, X F. Dong

In the lower zone of blast furnace (BF), slag trickles down through a packed bed of carbonaceous particles in the form of films, rivulets or droplets. During its downward flow, there are significant interactions occurring between slag and other phases, ie gas and packing particles. In particular, the interaction between gas and slag is closely associated with the key flow phenomena such as loading, flooding or channelling in the lower zone of the BF. With gas introduced laterally through tuyeres and slag flowing downward from the cohesive zone to the hearth, this interaction varies throughout the lower zone and in the cohesive zone:  strong cross-flow of gas relative to the slag occurs in front of the raceway  counter-current flow of gas and slag occurs in the upper parts of the lower zone  both strong cross- and counter-current flow of gas and slag around and within the cohesive zone. These interactions can be linked to furnace irregularities, affecting smooth operation and limiting production. Therefore, understanding the gas-slag interaction and its influencing factors remains critical for BF process control. In the current review, the physical behaviour and key influencing factors of gas and slag flow are initially examined. Numerical models describing gas and slag flows in a packed bed at micro-, mesoand macro-scopic levels, are reviewed. Each simulation approach has its advantages and limitations, as well as unique assumptions when used in BF process modelling. Applications of these approaches to gas-slag flow in key identified functional zones will highlight the differences between approaches and modelling outcomes. As no single approach can fully address all aspects of gasslag interactions, an integration of different approaches is considered an effective and beneficial method in providing a more complete understanding of gas-slag flow in the BF process.

Jun 19, 2024

By P. L. Dunn

Automatic control of fine coal cleaning circuits has traditionally been limited by a lack of sensors. Although several nuclear-based analyzers are available, none have seen widespread acceptance. In this investigation, image analysis is used for on-line determination of ash content in fine coal slurries. The ash content of a flotation tailings stream is correlated to the mean gray level of the slurry. Based on a 90% prediction interval, an analysis of sensor performance indicates an accuracy of 73 ± 4% ash over a range from 65-90% ash. While this result is comparable to existing nuclear-based analyzers, the video-based system is only a fraction of the cost. The sensor is currently installed at the Middle Fork preparation plant owned by Pittston Coal Company.

Jan 1, 1997

By Patricia Curtis Petty

Thirty years ago, the appearance of a female mining engineer, geologist or miner in a company, union or mine environment would have been unthought of, unwelcomed and violently opposed. Twenty years ago, the intellectual perception of the news that women were interested in becoming mining engineers, geologists and miners had been accepted by the industry-but no one wanted to be the first to hire one of these exotic creatures. Ten years ago, those who had been most vehemently opposed to the philosophical idea of women working in these areas were faced with competent, productive engineers, geologists and miners-who only incidentally happened to be women-and began hiring them. Historically, of course, one can always find the isolated individual who worked in these areas-the first female graduate of the Colorado School of Mines with a mining engineering degree graduated in 1903-but the concept of woman as professional engineer was very slow in arriving in the United States. The few who worked as miners generally worked in small family enterprises, such as some of the coal mines in both Eastern and Western United States. Others accompanied husbands or sons into wilderness areas searching for gold and other precious metals.

Jan 1, 1984

By M. Rafiee

Indoor physical security, as a perpetual and multi-layered phenomenon, is a timeintensive and labor-consuming task. Various technologies have been leveraged to develop automatic access control, intrusion detection, or video monitoring systems. Video surveillance has been significantly enhanced by the advent of Pan-Tilt-Zoom (PTZ) cameras and advanced video processing, which together enable effective monitoring and recording. The development of ubiquitous object identification and tracking technologies provide the opportunity to accomplish automatic access control and tracking. Intrusion detection has also become possible through deploying networks of motion sensors for alerting about abnormal behaviors. However, each of the above-mentioned technologies has its own limitations. This paper presents a fully automated indoor security solution that leverages an Ultra-wideband (UWB) Real-Time Locating System (RTLS), PTZ surveillance cameras and a Building Information Model (BIM) as three sources of environmental data. Providing authorized persons with UWB tags, unauthorized intruders are distinguished as the mismatch observed between the detected tag owners and the persons detected in the video, and intrusion alert is generated. PTZ cameras allow for wide-area monitoring and motion-based recording. Furthermore, the BIM is used for space modeling and mapping the locations of intruders in the building. Fusing UWB tracking, video and spatial data can automate the entire security procedure from access control to intrusion alerting and behavior monitoring. Other benefits of the proposed method include higher accuracy and robustness, more complex query processing, and interoperability with other BIM-based solutions. A prototype system is implemented that demonstrates the feasibility of the proposed method.

Aug 1, 2013

By Ehsan Moosavi, Kamyar Tolouei, Mehran Gholinejad

The literature defines rockbursts in slightly different ways based on their generation mechanisms, field phenomena, and degree of damage, but in a way that is almost consistent. Generally, a rockburst refers to seismic events that mainly happen in underground excavations, for purposes such as underground mining, road and railway tunnels, nuclear power, etc., and that are followed by the collapse and outburst of rocks. Long-term rockburst prediction can be abstracted as a classification problem mathematically, in which we can introduce deep learning to solve it. Further, using deep learning in rockburst prediction can overcome drawbacks such as subjectivity and inconsistency brought from previous traditional approaches. A rockburst data-set, was employed to evaluate the current method for predicting rockburst grade, and the good results of overall success rate were obtained. The results indicated that the proposed algorithms can speed up parameter optimization search, the proposed method is robust model and might hold a high potential to become a useful tool in rockburst prediction research.

Apr 26, 2022